Las Vegas - Welcome Sign Parking Lot

I knew that I would get around to this one sooner or later.

Apparently a small parking lot will be built in order to provide a safe way for people to access the famous Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign.

The sign is in the center of Las Vegas Boulevard, at the south end of The Strip. Vehicles often park in the street, or hop the curb, to park near it.

The Klondike was near enough that one could park and walk, but The Klondike is now a fenced-in deserted place, and the pseudo visitor's center next to it isn't really inviting. And anyway, even when The Klondike was open, many people still parked in the center of The Strip to go to the sign.

The plan is roughly for a 12 spot parking lot, with room for a tour bus. I can just see the police incidents now. People who want to hang out at the sign. Barbecue at the sign. Just want to leave their car parked at the sign. Maybe place a for sale sign on their car, and park it right there at the sign.

The minor difficulty of getting to the sign is the only thing which has kept the crowd small enough to be manageable.

A parking lot for 12 cars will invite many more. There will be backups, and accidents, and all sorts of nonsense.

Ideally I would prefer to have the parking lot be on the side of Las Vegas Boulevard, right near the sign, with a pedestrian crossover to the center of The Strip. I realize that land might not be available on the sides, but I don't think that placing the parking lot in the center of Las Vegas Boulevard is a great idea.

Only during very odd empty hours, would the parking lot in the center seem to be highly functional. During busy daylight hours, or busy early evening, it might attract and spill over more than it can handle.

Things like this are why people climb mountains. Maybe. I don't really know anything about climbing mountains.

Las Vegas used to be more difficult to get to. More exclusive. More isolated. Now everyone is here, JetBlue flys here, interstate 15 is jammed with people driving here.

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Las Vegas is still an incredible place, but no longer an exclusive personal treatment special place. When Greyhound size buses start unloading 60 people to form lines at the Welcome sign, to have their picture taken, and move it along for the next guy, then the sign itself, will have become as unisolated as the rest of Las Vegas, and you will have to find yet another place out here to treat as a special landmark.